Reports on Research Surveys by Year

June 13-17, 2014

The 5th North America Survey (Morse Collection Survey)

Conducted by National Museum of Japanese History (Okubo, "Overseas Locations Survey Team (General Survey)")

Locations surveyed: Peabody Essex Museum

Participants: Jun'ichi Kobayashi (Edo Tokyo Museum)

Description:
The Morse Collection at the Peabody Essex Museum (U.S.) was created by Edward Sylvester Morse during his time in Japan in the early Meiji Period. A selection of 320 items from the More Collection were exhibited as part of a special exhibition at the Edo Tokyo Museum titled "Soul of Meiji – Edward Sylvester Morse, His Day-by-Day with Kind-Hearted People" (open September 14-December 8, 2013).
As a result of its work, the team was able to provide the museum with photographs of the exhibit items, about 1000 photographic glass plates, and about 1000 sketches by Morse himself, for which captions were also created. The team also surveyed materials as part of its next step in producing a database of the roughly 2800 items collected by Morse.

(Text: Kobayashi)

Surveying Materials in the Morse Collection at the Peabody Essex Museum
Surveying Materials in the Morse Collection at the Peabody Essex Museum